Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light-quantity control apparatus mounted on an optical apparatus such as a digital camera, a video camera, and an interchangeable lens.
Description of the Related Art
An optical apparatus such as a camera is necessary to have compactness. In particular, it is necessary to reduce the length, in an optical axis direction, of a lens barrel that protrudes from a camera body to hold an image capturing lens.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-310412 discloses a camera having a so-called retractable lens barrel that protrudes from a camera body during a camera use time (image capturing) and is housed (retracted) to the camera body during a camera non-use time (carrying). In this camera, a light-quantity control apparatus (aperture stop) and a lens are arranged adjacently to each other in an optical axis direction. Therefore, the length of the lens barrel in the retracted state is reduced by inserting a part of the lens into the aperture in the retracted state.